Snake Pass into Glossop
Snake Pass into Glossop, overlooking Glossop golf course.
Approximately A3
Measurement: 43 x 28 cm
Professional quality print of an original work of art in soft pastel by Jude Whitehead.
Artist insight:
The first time I drove on the Snake Pass was to ferry myself and my sister to visit our pal in her first year at Sheffield Uni. It was not too long after I’d passed my driving test. My Dad let me borrow his rusty B reg ford escort – it had a 900 engine, was super nippy but struggled on the hills. A few miles short of the Snake the radiator hissed its displeasure and overheated. Determined to have our night of freedom – we managed to get some Radweld and journey onward. By this time, it was dark, I couldn’t see the twists and turns and steep drops down the valley on the roads edge and I was pretty terrified when I drove us back again in daylight when I could see every contour – but what a stunning route it is.
The Snake Pass is fairly well known and revered for its snakiness – it’s a beautiful route to drink in some jaw-dropping Peak District countryside views. Valleys, hills, heather, woodland, dry stone walls and of course the bouncing bomb reservoirs. And if you’ve ever fancied driving it – then maybe do it sooner rather than later, as it’s role as an ‘A’ road is rumoured to be coming to an end. The state of it gets sorrier and sorrier. A large back log of major repairs stacking up and some very scary one lane stretches where the other side of the road has fallen away and been left as is. It’s very often shut as it’s too dangerous to cross.
One such time when it was shut, I walked the start of the Snake – and took the liberty of walking down the middle of the road. I felt giddy with the headrush of power – until a car that had chanced its luck and gone up the Snake anyway was turned around and headed towards me. Anyhow – it was a beautiful sunny day, and the Autumn colours where shining in their brilliance, and I got to walk on the Snake Pass as though I was the only traffic there, which I was briefly :0)
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